


What, you can't see?

by Fek



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Allergies, Azula (Avatar) Redemption, Comfort, Fire Lord Zuko, Gen, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Love, Zuko is half blind, post-redemption azula
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:09:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24399295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fek/pseuds/Fek
Summary: In which Azula has a shocking realization about her brother that she had never before considered.
Relationships: Azula & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 24
Kudos: 1497





	What, you can't see?

Azula is briskly walking-- _not running, thank you very much, she's not_ that _worried--_ through the halls of the fire palace. Various servants and attendants scatter from her war path, avoiding the charged air she leaves behind. Her head is held high, her face pinched in focus, and yes, maybe her footsteps are echoing too loudly for someone trained extensively in stealth, but her goal right now is only a couple metres away. She approaches the grand, arched door in front of her and swings it open with her usual power.

"Come on, Zuko! Just let me fix it--"

"It's an allergic reaction, Katara. Water is not going to heal it."

"You don't know that!" 

"Oh my god, leave it alone!" He sighs, pushing her away. Zuko finally looks towards Azula straight on and she can't help it; she laughs at him. His unscarred eye is nearly sealed shut and comically puffed up three or four times its natural size. He's squinting at her-- not that he has much of a choice-- in annoyance. "Shut up." He finally grunts, like a petulant child.

"Oooohhhh my god, your _face_! You look like an ugly koalasheep!" Her mirth made Katara raise her brow in tell-tale disappointment.

"Thanks, Azula." He tried to roll his eyes. It made her laugh harder.

"I didn't know you were allergic to bugs, Zuzu."

"Me neither. I've never been stung."

"You could let me just _try."_ Katara huffs.

Zuko scoots farther away from her on the bench. "Thanks Katara, but I'm fine."

"Fine. I'm going to tell the others how you're doing." And she marches back outside to her ridiculous excuse of a brother and their friends.

Azula approaches Zuko to sit beside him, get a better look at the engorged mass on his face. "She already tried like 4 times and it barely went down." He mutters to her. She hums in response and reaches up her hand to poke at the bulbous mass. It's not as squishy as it looks, she finds. Zuko swats her hand away and she laughs again.

* * *

The sun is shining and the palace is much quieter after the avatar and his gang have scattered back to their corners of the world after their bimonthly hangout. They're taking the time to have tea in the garden and enjoy the warmth side by side. "When are you heading out?" Zuko inquires between sips.

"Probably later this week. I'll be gone for about a month."

"Make sure you bring extra blankets this time. I don't want you to freeze again."

"I didn't freeze last time, I was just chilly." she sighs. He turns to regard her in full, and for the umpteenth time in the last three days she's struck with a combination of sympathy and hilarity when she looks at his mismatched face. Indeed, the swelling got worse after a day and had sealed his unburned eye completely shut.

"It doesn't matter, Azula. I don't want you to be chilly either."

"Ugh." She leans back on her hands, wrapping her fingers in the grass. "Why don't you worry about your own job, Fire Lord." His mouth quirks in the classic _I'm-not-sure-what-you're-talking-about-but-I-don't-like-it_ way it always does. Given the deformities of the rest of his face, it's a fairly poor imitation of his usual expression.

"Oh, come on. You think I haven't noticed?" She teases, throwing a handful of pulled grass at him. "You've been lax in your duties since your friends left." He blinks a singular eye at her.

"I can only do so much when I'm blind, Azula." Her laughter echoes loudly through the garden, causing Zuko to chuckle as well as she falls back on the grass.

"You are so dramatic!" She manages finally. Zuko's laughter stops instantly.

"What?"

"Blind? You have two eyes, Zuko." She bites her tongue at him playfully, but he's not smiling.

"Azula…" he starts slowly, "I'm blind in one eye."

She feels the shock well up in her throat and pale her face before she can stomp it down. "What..?"

"I didn't realize you didn't know that." He shrugs it off like it's nothing, like he isn't revealing something life changing.

"No you're not."

"Yeah, I am." Azula bolts upright to face him.

"But you can see me right now, right?" Her eyes are wide with anxiety and she reaches out to touch his cheek, leaning nearer as if she could see the nerve damage if she just peered close enough.

"I can kind of see shapes and colours I guess, but I wouldn't know it was you if I didn't already expect you to be here. And being able to see even that much is pretty new, actually."

"Since when?" The words slip out before she can stop them, even though she already knows. He looks away, and she twists her hands together in her lap.

"Did you think dad held back or something?"

"No but…." It's nearly a whisper.

"It used to be worse. I used to not be able to see anything but lines of light when I was fire bending. Katara healed it."

"Well she clearly didn't do enough!" 

He lays his hand on hers-- in comfort or warning, she can't tell. Maybe both. "The wound was so old that there wasn't much she _could_ do. Either way, I'm fine."

"But you're not." She insists. Her fingers could rip holes in her clothes. He touches the top of her head gently.

"I promise I'm fine. I mean, my other eye could be better, but you know." Azula feels on the brink of tears. She plops her head forward into his shoulder, drawing comfort from the warmth of his arm around her.

"I'm sorry." She mutters. Zuko laughs softly.

"It's not your fault." He kisses the top of her head.

"Wait." She peels herself back. "Does everyone else know?"

"Yeah, pretty much." She gasps in disdain and flicks his forehead, resulting in him hissing. 

"How come I'm the last to know!?"

"I don't know; everyone else kind of figured it out when they saw my face. Except Toph. I told Toph."

"Are you saying I'm as observant as someone who's literally blind?"

"Hey, Toph is pretty observant."

"I like to think that I can _see_ better than Toph." Zuko shrugs. Azula leans back on him again. "What did she do when she found out you were fully blind now?" She examines the dirt and grass chunks under her fingernails from earlier.

"Well, first she laughed at me for getting stung, and then we fist bumped."

Azula lets out an amused huff and picks up her tea cup again. After a sip of calming jasmine, she decides. 

"I'm postponing my trip until after your eye is healed."

"Thanks Azula but that's not necessary."

"Too bad. I'm also your personal guard now and if anyone tries to take advantage of your blindness I'll kill them."

"Azula, please. You don't have to do this."

"Too bad. I'm going to."

"I'm literally asking you not to."

"You won't even see me there." She says through a smile in an airy, grandiose tone. Zuko scowls and flicks her forehead.

**Author's Note:**

> Who else is excited for the live action remake of Avatar with direction by the original creators? I, personally, am super excited for the possibility of an Azula redemption arc, like Aaron intended. I have a soft spot for perfectionists with severe trauma. It shows.  
> About this: Temperatures above 47°C start to hurt. When animals are boiled, the first thing to go is their eyes as they turn milky white. Given the temperature of fire, even cool fire, being in nearly direct contact with the sensitive skin of the face as well as the bright blinding light that would go with it, it seems to me rather unlikely that Zuko would have unimpaired vision, even if he does have a natural fire resistance that would save him from going completely blind.  
> I imagine that Azula is the kind of person who never once thinks about the conditions others are living in. Even post-redemption, she wouldn't think about such things until she had reason to. As for Zuko; well, any lack of balance or depth perception could easily just be his clumsiness and incapability, right? After the siblings repair their relationship, I think she would be the last to notice Zuko is half-blind, simply due to her not thinking about it. Once she finds out she would feel awful-- emotions which she would then transfer into a fierce protectiveness.


End file.
